Joseph L. Bower

JOSEPH L. BOWER, Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for 51 years. During its first decade, he also served on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School. He has served in many administrative roles including Senior Associate Dean. An expert on corporate strategy, organization, and leadership, he has devoted much of his teaching and research to challenges confronting corporate leaders in today’s rapidly changing hyper-competitive conditions. Professor Bower has been active in the development of institutions and programs. Between 1968 and 73 he helped establish the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. In 1978, he founded the Program for Senior Managers in Government at Harvard’s JFK School of Government; and in 1995 he founded the General Manager Program at Harvard Business School. He was deeply involved in the efforts to build the new joint MBA-MPP degree program offered by the Business School and the Kennedy School of Government.

Presently, he is co-leading a project on The Future of Market Capitalism. The first result of the project was a book co-authored with Dutch Leonard and Lynn Paine, titled Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business, published October 2011 by Harvard Business Press. Based on three years of work and interviews around the world, the book draws on discussions with business leaders to identify ten potential disruptors of the global market system. Presenting examples of companies already making a difference, the authors explain how business must serve both as innovator and activist--developing corporate strategies that effect change at the community, national, and international levels.

Professor Bower has also consulted widely on problems of succession, strategy and organization with companies here and abroad. He is a director of Anika Therapeutics, Inc., Loews Corporation, and New America High Income Fund. He is a life trustee of the New England Conservatory of Music and has served on many other company and non-profit boards.

Professor Bower is a graduate of Harvard University AB '59 magna cum laude, MBA '61 a Baker Scholar with high distinction, DBA '63. Married to Elizabeth Potter, he lives in Cambridge, has two children, two step-children, five grandchildren, and 3 step-grandchildren.

Featured Work

The spread of capitalism worldwide has made people wealthier than ever before. But capitalism's future is far from assured. The global financial meltdown of 2008 nearly triggered another Great Depression, economies in Europe are still teetering, and powerful forces-income inequality, resource depletion, and mass migrations from poor to rich countries, to name just a few-pose serious threats to continued prosperity. How can the future of capitalism be secured? And who should spearhead the effort? Many observers point to government. But in Capitalism at Risk, the authors argue otherwise. While they agree that governments must play a role, they maintain that businesses should lead the way. Indeed, for enterprising companies, the current threats to market capitalism present vital opportunities. Drawing on discussions with business leaders around the world, the authors argue that companies must stop seeing themselves as bystanders and instead develop innovative business strategies that address the disruptors, produce profitable growth, and strengthen institutions at the community, national, and international levels.

With rising CEO turnover, companies are increasingly looking outside for qualified candidates. Sure, externally recruited CEOs bring fresh perspectives and connections. But they lack the in-depth knowledge of the company s culture and history that they need to succeed. Result? Many deliver disappointing performances.

Companies can avoid this scenario, contends Joseph Bower in The CEO Within. Drawing on a decade s research (including interviews with leading CEOs) and experience managing the succession process, Bower explains how companies can develop a cohort of internal candidates one of whom may be suited to the increasingly demanding CEO role. The key? Groom inside-outsiders. These leaders view their role through the lens of someone who just bought the company unencumbered by the cognitive and emotional baggage that comes from a long tenure in the organization. But they also leverage the knowledge they ve accumulated about the company s people, suppliers and customers, and future direction.

Placed squarely at the intersection of succession planning and leadership development, this book describes the distinguishing attributes of the inside-outsider and reveals how to recruit, nurture, and promote this special type of leader. With a healthy supply of qualified internal candidates, companies get the leadership they need when they need it.

In today's economic climate, corporate leaders in multidivisional and multinational companies face a uniquely broad set of challenges. While putting in place the systems, relationships, and strategies that foster business unit success, you also must lead the business as a whole, optimizing financial strategy in a turbulent global economy, generating synergies across units, and creating opportunities beyond the current business. The Corporate Leader explores this multifaceted role in depth, helping you balance competing demands while maintaining the big-picture focus that positions your organization for future success.

Publications

The spread of capitalism worldwide has made people wealthier than ever before. But capitalism's future is far from assured. The global financial meltdown of 2008 nearly triggered another Great Depression, economies in Europe are still teetering, and powerful forces-income inequality, resource depletion, and mass migrations from poor to rich countries, to name just a few-pose serious threats to continued prosperity. How can the future of capitalism be secured? And who should spearhead the effort? Many observers point to government. But in 'Capitalism at Risk,' the authors argue otherwise. While they agree that governments must play a role, they maintain that businesses should lead the way. Indeed, for enterprising companies, the current threats to market capitalism present vital opportunities. Drawing on discussions with business leaders around the world, the authors argue that companies must stop seeing themselves as bystanders and instead develop innovative business strategies that address the disruptors, produce profitable growth, and strengthen institutions at the community, national, and international levels.

With rising CEO turnover, companies are increasingly looking outside for qualified candidates. Sure, externally recruited CEOs bring fresh perspectives and connections. But they lack the in-depth knowledge of the company's culture and history that they need to succeed. Result? Many deliver disappointing performances. Companies can avoid this scenario, contends Joseph Bower in "The CEO Within." Drawing on a decade's research (including interviews with leading CEOs) and experience managing the succession process, Bower explains how companies can develop a cohort of internal candidates--one of whom may be suited to the increasingly demanding CEO role. The key? Groom "inside-outsiders." These leaders view their role through the lens of someone who just bought the company--unencumbered by the cognitive and emotional baggage that comes from a long tenure in the organization. But they also leverage the knowledge they've accumulated about the company's people, suppliers, customers, and future direction. Placed squarely at the intersection of succession planning and leadership development, this book describes the distinguishing attributes of the inside-outsider and reveals how to recruit, nurture, and promote this special type of leader. With a healthy supply of qualified internal candidates, companies get the leadership they need--when they need it.

This article considers the process of resource allocation, whereby an organization determines how best to apportion its factors of production between the various productive activities in which it wishes to engage. It is suggested that none of the academic approaches to date has provided an entirely coherent picture of the process, in part because of the contradictory models of the process that they generate. The article goes on to consider the planning processes that are involved in assessing future projects and the way in which past outcomes feed into the assessment of future projects.

The case method was developed concurrently with the emergence of business schools as a way of teaching future executives evidence-based problem solving in the classroom. Harvard Business School faculty led in developing the method. A particular challenge in the writing of cases is finding the balance between enough complexity, so that the problem posed reflects reality and supports alternative approaches to resolution, and too much complexity, which makes it impossible for the student to prepare. A great virtue of the method is that it replicates the managerial work involved in solving a problem within a group.

Although often described as an event, if succession is managed properly it is the culmination of a development process that takes place over a number of years, led by the CEO working with the board of directors. In the ideal situation several candidates will have been developed, each of whom would be more or less capable of taking on the job, depending on the circumstances and prospects of a company. In fact, companies often turn to outsiders because they have failed to recruit, train, and develop the sort of talent that might take over leadership of the organization. To avoid this failure the board must make sure that the company is managed in such a way that talent is developed along with the business.

Market capitalism, a system that has proven to be a remarkable engine of wealth creation, is poised for a breakdown. That sounds dire, and it is. Increasing income inequality, migration, weaknesses in the global financial system, environmental degradation, and inadequate government and international institutions are just a few of the forces that threaten to disrupt global market capitalism in the decades ahead. In conversations with business leaders around the world, the authors found that virtually all of them shared a deep concern for the sustainability of the market system, but their beliefs about how to respond varied widely. Some said that changing their behavior would be unnecessary or even inappropriate. Others were unsure how to deal with issues seldom thought to be the responsibility of individual firms. The authors call for business to be both innovator and activist in protecting and strengthening market capitalism. Instead of seeing themselves as narrowly self-interested players in a system that is overseen by others, business leaders must spearhead entrepreneurial activity on a massive scale-devising strategies that provide employment for the billions now outside the system, inventing business models that make better use of scarce resources, and creating institutional arrangements for coordinating and governing neglected and dysfunctional aspects of market capitalism.

Courses in strategy are an outgrowth of the business policy course first taught at Harvard Business School in 1912. This article examines how the teaching of a course concerned with the development and implementation of the goals and policies of a firm changed during three periods in the postwar period: first, with the introduction of the concept of corporate strategy; second, with the evolution of faculty interest in a concept of competitive strategy more closely grounded in industrial organization economics; and third, with the development of a new course in entrepreneurial management more closely linked to business policy's concerns with the general management challenges facing the leaders of modern firms. This history of the course is linked to changes in information technology, financial markets, and the managements of firms as well as related changes in the markets for students and faculty.

Our studies of CEO succession over the past several years have shown some improvements in the trends in CEO turnover, often resulting from outside pressures for improved oversight and better corporate governance. The next step in improving CEO succession—and ultimately in improving financial performance and long-term returns to shareholders—seems more likely to come from within, as management teams and boards improve their procedures for identifying and nurturing potential future leaders and for knowing when the time is ripe for change.

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In his interviews and data analysis, Harvard Business School professor Bower found that companies performed better when they appointed insiders to the job of CEO. Other researchers, including Jim Collins in "Good to Great," have come to similar conclusions working from different data sets. Yet Bower finds far too many companies are managed without leadership development as an objective; as a result, when the time comes to name a new chief executive, those firms turn to outsiders. Both insider and outsider CEOs have strengths and weaknesses at the start. Insiders know the company and its people but are often blind to the need for radical change. Outsiders see the need for a new approach but can't make the necessary changes because they don't know the organization or industry sector well enough. What companies must do, then, is find a way to nurture what Bower calls inside-outsiders--internal candidates who have outside perspective. Often such executives have spent much of their time away from the mainstream of the organization, and away from headquarters, living with new opportunities and threats. Before becoming CEO, Procter & Gamble's A.G. Lafley, for instance, worked for years building P&G's Chinese operation rather than the core detergent business. IBM's Sam Palmisano was a champion of software and open systems at a time when Big Blue was essentially a closed-system, hardware-oriented company. To groom potential leaders, a development process for inside-outsiders needs to be in place. Ideally by the time they are 30 a talented manager can be given the opportunity to manage a whole business, so that they become good insiders. But they also need to be mentored with an eye toward preserving their outsider perspective, so they learn how to turn their new ideas into great businesses and are protected from senior managers who believe out-of-the-box thinkers need a lesson.

The financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession caused a crisis of public confidence in business and American-style capitalism, with its focus on maximizing shareholder value. Corporate leaders understood that reform was needed and that they needed to commit themselves to the dual goal of producing benefits for society and their firms' bottom lines—to creating "shared value." But the specific actions they could take to bring about this change were less clear.

This ebook offers some of the freshest thinking today on practical measures that businesses can implement to create shared value. Originally published in an online forum hosted by Harvard Business Review, it offers valuable advice about how CEOs, other senior executives, and boards of directors can work together to engage stakeholders in new ways, change their companies' values, build healthier relationships with investors, revamp incentive systems to create long-term value, and develop stronger succession plans.

Bower, Joseph L. "The Purpose of Change, A Commentary on Jensen and Senge." Chap. 3 in Breaking the Code of Change, edited by Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. View Details

Bower, Joseph L. "Restructuring Petrochemicals: A Comparative Study of Business and Government Strategy to Deal with a Declining Sector of the Economy." In U.S. Competitiveness in the World Economy, edited by Bruce R. Scott and George C. Lodge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1985. View Details

Bower, Joseph L., and Yves L. Doz. "Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning." In Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning, edited by Daniel E. Schendel and Charles W. Hofer. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979. View Details

Unlike most historical accounts of strategic change inside large firms, empirical research on strategic management rarely uses the day-to-day behaviors of top executives as the unit of analysis. By examining the resource allocation process closely, we introduce the concept of a deep dive, an intervention when top management seizes hold of the substantive content of a strategic initiative and its operational implementation at the project level, as a way to drive new behaviors that enable an organization to shift its performance trajectory into new dimensions unreachable with any of the previously described forms of intervention. We illustrate the power of this previously underexplored change mechanism with a case study, in which a well-established firm overcame barriers to change that were manifest in a wide range of organizational routines and behavioral norms that had been fostered by the pre-existing structural context of the firm.

Eisenmann, Thomas R., and Joseph L. Bower. "The Entrepreneurial M-Form: A Case of Strategic Integration in a Global Media Company." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 99-005, July 1998. View Details

In the fall of 2013, Healthcare.gov launches as an insurance exchange for consumers to buy health insurance. The launch is filled with glitches, and some worry if it will imperil the fate of the entire ACA.

In the fall of 2009, the House and Senate each voted to pass health reform bills. These bills then had to be combined into the Affordable Care Act and the ACA had to be passed by both houses. Reconciliation had to be used because of Republican Scott Brown's Senate victory in Massachusetts.

In 2009, The Obama administration and Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee enter into talks with industry groups that will be effected by the health reform that the Congress is working on.

In early 2009, the Obama administration and the Democratically-led Congress began working on what would eventually become the Affordable Care Act. The (A) case in this series discusses the legislative strategy in the House of Representatives, where three different committees each had jurisdiction over health care legislation.

This note provides an overview of the U.S. health care system as it stood in 2014, including an overview of hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and other health care providers. It also discusses the major political actions on health care in the 20th century, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the early planning process for the Affordable Care Act at the beginning of the Obama presidency.

In 2010, Tom Linebarger, president and COO of Cummins, Inc., the Columbus, Indiana-based manufacturer of diesel engines, has to decide where to locate the company's new manufacturing line for high horsepower engines. He has three choices to decide from: Seymour, Indiana; Daventry, England; and Pune, India. The Community Education Coalition (CEC) in Columbus has had success in improving the city's schools to make the area more competitive in attracting and retaining highly educated employees to this small Midwestern city. The CEC is planning an expansion into Seymour with Cummins' help. Will the CEC be able to improve the school system in Seymour enough to make it a viable choice for the new high horsepower engine line? The case highlights the role of Cummins' long-term effort at community development as a key element of its corporate strategy.

This note describes the market for consumer finance products in the United States. The note focuses on the changes in supply and demand that have occurred since the mid-20th century, and highlights recent approaches to finance for low-credit rated borrowers.

Fu Chengyu is the fifth CEO to lead China National Offshore Oil Company - an SOE founded in 1982 to exploit Chinese offshore deposits. In 2010 he is trying to decide how to drive further growth in a company that has grown 556 times in less than 30 years, with profits grown 2600 times. He believes that the way CNOOC has been managed, a blend of market orientation and concern for employees and the nation has contributed importantly to the success. His challenge is to allocate resources among new areas to explore for petroleum and new sources of energy, and to develop managers with the capability of leading those businesses in the face of world class competitors. Both technical talent and the ability to integrate the efforts of non-Chinese leaders are involved.

Joel Klein took over the NYC Department of Education in 2002 and radically transformed the strategy and organization remarkably with improvements in performance. Day 1 of the two case series focuses on the steps taken by Klein over his eight year tenure. Supplementary video (both for homework and in class) provides Klein's thoughts about major developments.

Joel Klein took over the NYC Department of Education in 2002 and radically transformed the strategy and organization remarkably with improvements in performance. Day 2 focuses on Klein as a strategist, organization builder and driver of performance. Supplementary homework video provides Klein's thoughts on how one brings about change in a difficult public arena.

Kenan Sahin has built a very successful company using a unique business model and a unique organization and culture. Success has brought important risks, but logical options such as sale, partnering, or going public threaten the culture and hence the business.

Presents a matrix of 42 video clips of interviews with seven entrepreneurial managers answering the same six questions about their experiences building their companies. The individual entrepreneurs (Vittorio Merloni, Merloni Elettrodomestici; Alex d'Arbeloff, Teradyne, Inc.; Martin Sorrell, WPP Group; Sumner Redstone, Viacom, Inc.; Gordon Moore and Andy Grove, Intel, Inc.; Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines; Scott Cook, Intuit, Inc.) describe the challenges experienced and the lessons learned while building an enterprise. The questions are: What were you trying to achieve when you started your company? How did you think about assembling the people or finances that you needed? What were the most difficult problems that you faced? How has your thinking about the business changed over time? Looking back, what have you learned about building a large company? What are your principal concerns about challenges facing the company in the future?

In 2007, Loews Inc., under the leadership of James Tisch, was considering whether to buy natural gas properties from Dominion Resources. The question is whether the acquisition fits the corporate strategy. In exploring the questions, students will have the chance to consider what is in fact a corporate strategy, how Loews' corporate strategy adds value, and how the way Loews is managed contributes to the results—a tripling of market value in 5 years.

In 2007, the leadership of the Indesit Company is focused on long-term corporate strategy. After 3 decades, the company has emerged as the number 2 home appliance producer in Europe. Should they invest further to be number 1, or should they focus on the global market, and if so, which part of the world? A subordinate issue is how to manage their multiple brands. Should they consolidate? This case has extensive data on global markets.

The new CEO of a small manufacturing firm pursues growth through the launch of Entrepreneurial Subsidiaries. While the firm grows revenues from $600 million to over $2 billion in 10 years, problems surface as the subsidiaries are integrated into the established business.

Three cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. Teradyne: Managing Strategic Change provides historic and administrative background for the other two cases. This case deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology deemed very important to the future but unattractive to present customers and, therefore, the operating divisions. This revision is shorter and provides a simpler description of the technology involved. "Teradyne: Managing Disruptive Change" deals with the same set of problems from the perspective of corporate management-in particular why the skunk works approach was necessary and what new problems this approach creates even if the project is successful.

The deal of the year in 2002, was the acquisition of Dresdner Bank by Allianz. Written from the perspectives of Allianz's CEO, Henning Schulte-Noelle, before and after the deal and a regional manager implementing the concept of a full-line financial service provider. Presents the original question facing Schulte-Noelle: "Should Allianz acquire Dresdner?"

Brainard, Bennis and Farrel is a short case designed to explore the challenge of establishing appropriate compensation from a general management/CEO perspective. Brainard (B) is a one-page handout that is designed to show how an already difficult problem is made more complex by situational context--the detailed personal and interpersonal relationships among key executives over time.

The great U.K. retailer fell on hard times in 1998. In 2001, a new CEO was recruited who appears to have succeeded in turning around this world-renown company. This case examines the steps he took (strategic, structural, and recruiting key people) and highlights a series of fundamental questions that remain. Can the company regain its premium retail brand given the new competition and given the breadth of market segments that it addresses under one roof? Are the new approaches to sourcing and segmentation sound? Should the firm seriously consider reentering the international retail markets?

Pandesic is a joint venture of SAP and Intel designed to develop turnkey information architectures for marketspace companies. The case explores the problems of developing the joint venture from the perspective of its general management. Describes the development of its strategy and organization. At the end of the case, performance is poor and Harold Hughes (Intel) steps in from his position as part-time chairman to run Pandesic.

Examines the acquisition of Dresdner Bank by Allianz--the deal of the year in 2002. Examines some of the challenges posed by the turnaround of Dresdner as seen by Michael Diekmann, the new CEO of Allianz. In working with Dresdner, Allianz needed to figure out what it meat to be a fully integrated financial service provider. Focuses on the development of the product line, the question of branding, the investment bank, and the organization.

Enables students to interactively research the steps Marks & Spencer's top executives took to restore prosperity and explore in depth the major issues remaining. The perspective is that of Luc Vandevelde, who arrived at the venerable U.K. retailer in 2001, and that of the top team, many of whom he recruited in the subsequent 12 months. Focuses on restoring the power of the brand, building sub-brands to reach key market segments, and several developments in global sourcing. It is strongly recommended that users of this multimedia case first read the paper case on Marks & Spencer (product number 303096). To facilitate this recommendation, Harvard Business School Publishing makes available a bundle containing both items at a modest discount price: product number 7241BN.

Gerdau Group is a family-controlled Brazilian manufacturer and distributor of long steel products. Describes the evolution of the company's strategy, organization, and smart management, making it the No. 2 steel producer in Brazil. The company must decide whether to buy AmeriSteel, the No. 2 long steel producer in the United States. Considers the strategic, organizational, financial, and human issues posed by the potential acquisition.

Merloni Elettrodomestici was founded in 1975. This case traces the evolution of the company's strategy, organization, and management as it becomes the #3 player in Europe (the #1 in Eastern Europe). Issues involve questions of geographic expansion, resource allocation, and organization.

Viacom reached a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and very bold acquisitions. Now its further expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions on how to deal with major opportunities and how Viacom top management should manage the decision-making process.

Martin Sorrell has used WPP to acquire a large portfolio of marketing service firms including J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. How did he make this minnow-swallows-many-whales trick work, and can he make the whole into something bigger than the parts?

A new general manager uses a profit-center-based system to shake up an old line company. He then faces the task of placating a board member upset by the human consequences. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

The FBI indicates that three purchasing agents are suspected recipients of bribes. After an inconclusive investigation, the agents leave. The superiors are unsure what to do. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Vittorio Merloni describes the evolution of leadership in his company, and the consequent improvement in its performance, as well as his thoughts on building a successful company in a very competitive industry.

Gerdau Group is a family-controlled Brazilian manufacturer and distributor of long steel products. Philip Casey describes the evolution of the company's strategy, organization, and financial and management issues as the company has grown to be the #2 steel producer in Brazil.

Two cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. This case deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology deemed very important to the future but unattractive to present customers and, therefore, the operating divisions. This case deals with the same set of problems from the perspective of corporate management--in particular why the skunk works approach was necessary and what new problems this approach creates even if the project is successful.

In 2001 a young new CEO has to develop a strategy to move his company beyond the hyper-competitive conditions of Western Europe. A major acquisition in Russia and a new Web-based service business provide interesting new directions. This case traces the development of strategy and organization at this European multinational.

Presents the top executives of Teradyne. Alex d'Arbeloff, the CEO who drove the project, Jim Prestridge, the vice chairman (and top engineer), Owen Robbins, vice chairman and CFO, and Ed Rogus, the division head who wouldn't fund Aurora.

John Couch, CEO of DoubleTwist, has transformed a software products company into an Internet application service provider, racing to provide databases and tools for those working to explore the human genome. Crafting strategy and building organizational capability are challenges in this fast-moving field.

A new general manager has to propose a salary structure for the top 20 managers. His task is complicated as he learns about past performance, ambitions, interpersonal relations, and market conditions. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

In 1995, the Merloni management is faced with profitless prosperity. A rise in raw material prices in the face of ferocious competition in their markets hurts margins. At the same time, the company is trying to expand geographically in order to become Pan-European and to consolidate the position of three brands.

Involves the decision of whether to construct a new plant in another part of the country for a line of fire protection equipment. Capital funds set aside for the construction are blocked by Fireguard's continued record of substantial operating losses and divisional pressure for better departmental earnings. Also describes the market potential for this new product.

Focuses on the strategic issue of how to approach the East German market after the Berlin wall came down in late 1989. Within an unusually rich economic-political and organizational-personal context, the chairman of GM's German subsidiary has to respond to Volkswagen's preemptive move in the East. The rapid and unexpected political changes complicate the decision process.

From 1992 to 1997, CIBC CEO Al Flood and head of investment banking John Hunkin integrate the struggling investment bank, Wood Gundy, with CIBC's corporate bank. The impact and interaction of organization design, compensation schemes, and communication initiatives are explored.

In 1992, CIBC CEO Al Flood faced the short-term operational challenge of saving Wood Gundy, the troubled investment bank CIBC had purchased five years earlier. At the same time he had to tackle the long-term strategic challenge of integrating Gundy's investment banking capabilities with CIBC's established and successful corporate banking organization.

By 1997 the turnaround of CIBC's troubled investment bank, Wood Gundy, and its integration with corporate banking activities was complete. Marketplace results were encouraging, but scuttled mergers and tumultuous succession issues made the future uncertain.

From 1992 to 1997, CIBC CEO Al Flood and head of investment banking John Hunkin integrate the struggling investment bank Wood Gundy with CIBC's corporate bank. The impact and interaction of organization design, compensation schemes, and communication initiatives are explored. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Presents the ingredients that went into a major entrepreneurial shift by IBM--investing $5 billion into a new product line that would obsolete any existing computer product line offered by the competition, or by IBM itself. The economic and technical challenges of this new line, the System/360, are examined first, the human and organizational shifts at IBM follow. Exhibits include a summary chronology of the decision, four organizational charts reflecting new structures, and a financial summary.

Viacom has built a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and bold acquisitions. Now its expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions on how to deal with major opportunities and how Viacom top management should manage the decision-making process.

Three cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. Teradyne: Managing Strategic Change provides historic and administrative background for the other two cases. Teradyne: The Aurora Project deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology deemed very important to the future but unattractive to present customers and, therefore, the operating divisions. This case deals with the same set of problems from the perspective of corporate management--in particular why the skunk works approach was necessary and what new problems this approach creates even if the project is successful.

Three cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. This case provides historic and administrative background for the other two cases. Teradyne: The Aurora Project deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology deemed very important to the future but unattractive to present customers and, therefore, the operating divisions. Teradyne: Managing Disruptive Change deals with the same set of problems from the perspective of corporate management--in particular why the skunk works approach was necessary and what new problems this approach creates even if the project is successful.

Interviews with Martin Sorrell, Chairman of WPP Group plc, and also with the heads of several companies that are owned with WPP. Discusses corporate culture, strategies for the future, and how the various companies interact.

Viacom has reached a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and very bold acquisitions. Now its further expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdock's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions on how to deal with major opportunities and how Viacom top management should manage the decision-making process.

Canon is one of the leading innovators in the world. This case describes the processes by which Canon manages the flow of ideas from basic science to new products, and how it harnesses product innovation to a strategy of diversification.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is one of the world's greatest companies. In 1994, its management was chosen the most admired in Europe by 637 peers. The case explores how Sir Richard Greenbury, appointed the new chairman of the company in 1991, transformed his inheritance into a more profitable, more decentralized, and more international organization with minimal trauma. The case makes clear that M&S has built a complex of centralized capabilities in its London offices that relate seamlessly to the relatively compact distributed network of U.S. stores and increasingly concentrated U.S. suppliers. The challenge facing the managers in 1994 is how to adopt this management capability to the increasingly global spread of their stores--owned and franchised. Can there be an international retailer? The case suggests that there can be if managers can figure out how to implement the strategy at the same high level that they have achieved to date.

Describes the work of Jack Welch as CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 1992, focusing particularly on his transformation of the company's portfolio through extensive dispositions and acquisitions and the company's culture through a mandated process called "work out." To a considerable extent, the case tells the story in Welch's own words drawing on earlier cases on Welch prepared by Richard Hammermesh and Frank Aguilar, as well as a 1991 interview with Welch in the Harvard Business Review and an article in Fortune, "GE Keeps Those Ideas Coming."

Discusses the technical, economic, and packaging trends in the metal container industry, and the impact of these trends on major companies within the industry. Shows the response of Crown Cork & Seal Co. to these trends. Based on Crown Cork & Seal Co. and Note on the Metal Container Industry by W.D. Guth and J.S. Garrison.

Research Summary

In 2009 we are aware of the fragile state of our market system. But a careful examination of the long term prospects for the global economy reveal other problems that may destabilize the system that has created so much wealth in the period since the second world war. This project is exploring the threats to future prosperity within and without the system of market capitalism and the ways business leaders can work to mitigate those threats.

An outgrowth of the work on the corporate office has been a more focused study on the management of succession. This work identified the reasons why the management of CEO succession has proved so difficult for so many companies as well as the way the best companies are able to manage the CEO succession process. The key is the development of "inside-outsiders" men and women with deep understanding of the capabilities and culture of their organization who have both managed to maintain an objective perspective that enables to perceive the need for fundamental change and cultivate the skill set that enables to manage the transformation of their companies.

In response to dramatic changes in the business environment--hypercompetition in many traditional industries, short product life cycles, and new competitors based in emerging nations--successful companies have responded by repositioning themselves in the global markets and building new layers of capability. The entrepreneurial leaders of these companies find ways to use corporate strengths to add value to the performance of their business units. 'To a surprising extent,' says Professor Joe Bower, a leading expert in the fields of corporate strategy and public policy, 'we see similar challenges met with a common range of tools across very different companies.'